My Monday Night Visitor

What day of the week would you say comes with the highest concentration of VO audition requests?

Uh-huh. Monday.

Now, let me explain that my prime daypart for recording auditions is midnight to 3am. Lately I’ve also adding 11am – 1pm after I rise, for doing auditions. That’s it. That’s all the time I have for auditioning due to my “other” job.

Sure it’s frustrating. Not optimal….but workable. In fact, in today’s global marketplace, some auditions come in fresh between midnight and 3am. I get first crack at those.

I protect my vocal cords. I drink lots and lots of fluids (or else I get kidneystones). I don’t shout. I exercise my larynx. I get maximum sleepage. I sing. I get a full down-the-throat scope every six months by an Ear, Nose, & Throat MD. My last checkup was a month ago, and he gave me my best score ever. I don’t have allergies. None.

But not even HE can explain why every Monday night, by the time I’m done with my late newscast, I’m almost hoarse. Raspy. All those many Monday auditions waiting in my email box? Worthless.

No other night of the week follows that rule. When I start my week Monday morning, my voice is strong, but somewhere around 5-6pm Monday, I start to feel it disappear. The 11 o’clock newscast is forced. By Tuesday morning and night, I’m fine.

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Dry and hoarse? Could be the TV studio air-conditioning. Ducted in and dried out: developing positive ions. If that’s the case, you could try a negative ion generator at your side, just out of frame, though the sound guys might worry.

Same thing happened to me about 4 years ago. My hoarse timeframe, however, was about noon to 7pm 7 days a week. I managed to manipulate my vocal chords and delivery to somehow squeeze by during sessions but thee were a couple that suffered. Luckily, they were :30s but a few short narrations did suffer. I managed to fool the clients mostly (some asked if I wanted to get a glass of water) but after the sessions my throat was exhausted form the gyrations and deception. This went on for several months, enough to make me think about cancer since I smoked for 37 years but quit in ’08. Then, the problem magically went away and I haven’t thought about it for years.

I’ve been doing convention speaking and workshops for 25 years. Each session usually lasts 1.25 hours and usually 3-4 per day. I’m also in superb health thank God. By the 3rd day of speaking I get voice/throat fatigue. Room temperature water seems to be the best for me and not speaking when I don’t have to.